by Cole Porter
We didn’t attempt to go to the monastery of Grand Lavra, though to get there one no longer has to be lifted up to it in a basket as there is a new steep road. But to get to the road one must go for many hours, mule-back.
The monasteries of Mt. Athos used to have 40,000 monks. Now there are only 2,000, and very few young men want to come here and become monks. The ones who are here do no good for the world. This has always been true. They have merely retired from life. The ones I met today seemed to be happy but nearly infantile. They all pray at least eight hours a day. Some in the less strict monasteries till small plots of land, which they own. Others sit around and live on the income of the monasteries into which they have retired, the income derived from properties the monasteries own on many nearby islands and lands. It is a strange experience to have been here, and fascinating, but it reeks of rot. (Look up Meteora monasteries of Thessaly.)
24 May 1956
Thursday. Skiros (Northern Sporades). Drove to town of Skiros, highly picturesque, rather like Mykonos but much higher and more dramatic. Saw memorial statue to Rupert Brooke* with inscription, ‘To Rupert Brooke and Immortal Poetry.’ In museum, pottery of Cretan and Mycenaean civilizations mostly discovered by University of California archaeologist Dorothy Hanson.
25 May 1956
Skopelos (near Skiros), another peaceful isle. We didn’t land. At sunset, Skiathos, a port full of fishing boats and no automobiles. When the Germans had to leave this port at the end of World War II, they bombed the town and set it afire. It has been charmingly rebuilt.
26 May 1956
Saturday. Cruised to another part of Skiathos and moored off a lovely sandy beach backed by huge pines. Then on to the gulf that separates northern Greece from Euboea. On our right we saw Mt. Olympus and, farther south, the mountain beyond, which is the pass of Thermopylae. In the evening we laid anchor at Chalkis. To the right is Tanagra.
27 May 1956
Sunday. Chalkis, farther on. From the bay here, the Greek fleet sailed for the Trojan War. Drove first to museum to see fine archaic sculptures from Eretria, then to Eretria, destroyed by Persians in 490 B.C. A few foundations left.
28 May 1956
Proceeded towards Petali. On our right, the plain of Marathon, Mt. Pentelikon, and, farther still, Mt. Hymettus. Anchored off Petali, island owned by Embericos* family. In the evening, a completely calm sea, the stars nearly on our hands, and silence.
29 May 1956
Had breakfast, as usual, on the deck. Arrived at Piraeus and the beautiful cruise is over. On the way to the Grande-Bretagne, we stopped to see the Mycenaean gold, which is once more exposed at the museum.
In the evening to the Benaki Museum, which was specially opened for us, after hours, to see fascinating Greek regional costume and jewelry, plus a fine collection of ikons.
In Travels with Cole Porter, Jean Howard notes: ‘Cole didn’t say good-bye that May in Athens. The day after our return he left this note for me at our hotel’:96
30 May 1956: Cole Porter to Jean Howard97
Dear Jean –
Robert [Bray] has to stand by in Rome to find out when he must hit Hollywood + I’m going along for the ride.
So goodbye, have fun + my love to you both.*
Cole.
On 1 June, Madeline P. Smith informed Sam Stark: ‘Mr. P. comes home Tues, June 5.’98 There was much for Porter to deal with on his return. For example, Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin hoped to tempt him with a musical adaptation of The Shop Around the Corner.† He also had High Society to catch up with:
6 June 1956: Cole Porter to Johnny Green99
Dear Johnny: –
I came back to find the sound track recording of TRUE LOVE waiting for me, and I can’t tell you how surprised I am at the singing of Miss Grace Kelly.
I also found waiting the HIGH SOCIETY Overture,‡ which could easily resurrect the dead.
You can understand why I am coming back on June 18th to become again the slave of MGM, after the beautiful treatment given my efforts by Sol Siegel and by you and your great Music Department.
All my best to you, dear Johnny,
[signed:] Cole
The latter paragraph refers to the composition of Les Girls, which would turn out to be Porter’s final movie score. His regular business correspondence with Robert Montgomery continued:
23 June 1956: Cole Porter to Robert Montgomery100
Dear Bob:
Should I join the Composers and Lyricists Guild of America or do I already belong to this? Will you please attend to this matter?
I enclose your letter regarding the Lockheed airplane endorsement. I would be perfectly willing to fly Lufthansa, Air France or LAI but NOT TWA, so ask the Lockheed people to get hold of me and I will pose prettily.
Sincerely,
Cole
He also had several months’ worth of the latest Broadway musicals to see. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady had opened on Broadway on 15 March and when Porter finally saw it in June, he loved it. Over the coming months he became good friends with Lerner, who arranged for him to have regular seats for the show on Wednesday nights from the autumn:
2 July 1956: Alan Jay Lerner to Cole Porter101
Dear Cole:
I enjoyed seeing you so very much the other night. Your enthusiasm for the show means more to me than I can possibly say. I am naturally always pleased when people like it, but especially so when some do, and I cant [sic] think of anybody to whom that applies more than you.
I’ll have your seats for you in the fall and I do hope we’ll be able to have an evening together while you’re here.
Have a wonderful summer.
Best regards,
[unsigned]
P.S. Crest Toothpaste is dazzling. I bought a tube the next morning. Best thing since French pastry.
7 July 1956: Cole Porter to Alan Jay Lerner
Dear Alan:
Thanks a lot for your letter of July 2nd. I can’t tell you how happy I am about those seats in the fall.
According to the papers, you and your wife are coming out here for the summer but suddenly Dr. [Albert] Sirmay tells me that you have taken a house on Long Island. I am sorry, as I looked forward to seeing you this summer, but we can meet in the autumn.
All my best.
Sincerely,
[signed:] Cole
The next two letters give an insight into the role played by Madeline P. Smith in managing Porter’s personal and business affairs. By July, Porter was in his house in California:
7 July 1956: Cole Porter to Madeline Smith102
Dear Mrs. Smith:
Please send to Romain Gary,* Esq., 1919 Outpost Drive, Los Angeles, Calif., the following book: HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE by VASILIEV, Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, with a card saying “Best regards from Cole Porter”.
Please send two dozen each, size 8 x 10, reprints of the photograph and also the picture I use for fan mail.
Please keep the enclosed book from Dr. Shepard Krech and give it to me when I return to New York.
Please send me the English book THIN ICE by Compton Mackenzie, published by Chatto & Windus.
Please get two copies each of the following books, 1 set for the New York apartment and the other for Williamstown. If it is impossible to get all of these let me know and I shall bring them back from here, as I need them in all three places:
RIMARIO LETTERARIO DELLA LINQUA [sic] ITALIANA A CURADI GIOVANNI MONGELLI HAPLI-MILANO
JUAN DE PENALVER DICCIONARIO DE LA RIMA NUEVA EDICION CUIDAOSAMENTE [sic] CORREGIDA Y ALFABETTIZADA [sic] EDITORIAL SOPENA ARGENTINA SRL
P. H. MARTINON DICTIONNAIRE METHODIQUE ET PRATIQUE DES RIMES FRANCAISES LA ROUSSE [sic] – PARIS VIe
Best.
[unsigned]
14 July 1956: Cole Porter to Madeline P. Smith103
Dear Mrs. Smith:
Please order for me two copies of the book THE RHYMERS LEXICON (some later editions are named the Rhymers Dictio
nary) by Andrew Loring, published in London by George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., and in New York by E. P. Dutton & Company. This is probably out of print but I should be delighted even to have second hand [sic] copies. I need two of these as mine are falling apart. Don’t, in desperation, take the copy which I have at the Waldorf.
Please steal and send a big box of the plastic toothpicks which I use at the Waldorf to:
Mrs. Leland Hayward
243 South Mapleton
Beverly Hills, California
with a card saying, “Sent by Cole Porter.”
The enclosed list is for my bathroom at the Waldorf.
All my best.
[signed:] C. P.
After his long holiday, Porter was back in the game, writing what would become his final movie score for MGM, Les Girls, to star Gene Kelly. As with High Society, Sol Siegel was the producer. Porter mentions the project in passing in the following letter to Sam Stark, as well as teasing him about his habit of hoarding newspaper clippings:
29 July 1956: Cole Porter to Sam Stark104
Dear Sam:
Thanks a lot for your brief note of July 16th.
Why do you keep all the copies of the Variety, Saturday Review, Town and Country, Theatre Arts, Time and Life? This worries me as I am so afraid that you will end up like those two brothers that were found dead in Harlem, smothered by old magazines. As for my wanting to see anything in these magazines, one can get them in the smallest village in any country in Europe, in Africa or the Near East.
Please tell George Kelly* that I can’t read his plays yet. I have a long list to read first but I appreciate very much your sending them to me.
I am awfully sorry that our date for Sunday had to be cancelled but I am under Sol Siegel’s command!
Love to you both.
[signed:] Cole
On 9 August, High Society was released in cinemas. The reviews were surprisingly mixed, given the all-star cast – Bosley Crowther’s review savagely refers to ‘tedious stretches’105 – but Porter himself was full of praise for director Charles Walters’s work:
4 August 1956: Cole Porter to Charles Walters106
Dear Chuck:
This is a typed record of my congratulations to you for your great job on High Society.
All my best, dear Chuck.
[signed:] Cole
Indeed, Bosley Crowther’s dismissive New York Times review of High Society was in turn criticized by one of Porter’s colleagues, who wrote a letter to the newspaper:
Criticism is a grand and essential art, but criticism of criticism – even though a sort of cannibalism – is legitimate, too.
Take Mr. Crowther’s review of “High Society,” now at the Radio City Music Hall, for example. He makes a kindly reference to one of the songs sung by Bing Crosby, “I Love You, Samantha,” and then he adds in parenthesis “(whoever she is)”.
But the dialogue makes it quite clear who she is. She is Tracy Lord, played by Grace Kelly. Frank Sinatra mentions her distinctly as “Tracy Samantha Lord.” Bing Crosby calls her “Sam” again and again through the picture. Wasn’t Mr. Crowther listening?
Again, he refers to Louis Armstrong and his band “beating out some catchy tunes that have been borrowed from old Cole Porter albums or especially written by him for this show.” The fact is that eight of the nine songs in “High Society” were written by Mr. Porter “for this show.” The one exception, “Well, Did You Evah?”, is not played by the Armstrong band, nor do they play anything else from “old Cole Porter albums.”
This seems rather hit-or-miss criticism, with the accent strongly on the “miss.” It’s not like Mr. Crowther, who is usually alert and accurate. And it is not fair to his readers.
HOWARD DIETZ
Vice President in Charge of Advertising and Publicity, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., New York
Aside from his role at MGM, Dietz (1896–1983) was, of course, a distinguished lyricist in his own right, with musicals including The Band Wagon.
In response to a request to allow a Cole Porter Songbook to be published, Porter wrote:
19 August 1956: Cole Porter to John Wharton107
Dear John:
Thank you for your letter of August 19th, 1956. [. . .]
As for a Cole Porter song book being published by Simon and Schuster. This should be done, I believe, only if Simon and Schuster can publish it in such a way that it is possible to put it on a piano rack and be able to play it without the book falling off the rack. This was the great trouble with the Rodgers and Hart book.108
I look forward to seeing you a great deal in early October.
Best –
[signed:] Cole
He also continued to engage with charitable causes:
25 August 1956: Cole Porter to John Wharton109
Dear John:
I want very much to send $1,000.00 to help the Greek Islands which have lately been so injured by an earthquake.* In fact, my favorite island Santorini (Thera) has almost been wiped out.
Will you please let me know to whom the check should be made and how it can be made a tax deductible item?
Best.
[signed:] Cole
Porter planned to return to New York for the autumn:
29 September 1956: Cole Porter to Sam Stark110
Dear Sam:
Thank you so much for your letter of September 25th.
I hope we shall meet in New York before you sail. I arrive there on the night of October 8th.
Love to Y’all
[signed:] Cole
The first important event of the autumn was a ninety-minute colour television tribute to Porter on the ‘Ford Star Jubilee’, with performers including Shirley Jones, Gordon MacRae, Louis Armstrong and Dolores Gray. Porter wrote an article in anticipation of the broadcast on 6 October:111
30 September 1956: Cole Porter in the New York Herald Tribune:*
Now I Get A Kick Out Of TV
By Cole Porter
Television has undergone a great transformation, show-wise, in the last few years. I’ve been watching it happen. For a long while television was afraid to seem too polished. She stayed nice and folksy, trying to find that nonexisting group, the “average audience.” When she reached the point where even the folksiest of us were saying, “Poor drab creature,” then suddenly television peeked out of her poke bonnet and wondered if she might try on something just a little bit elegant. She slipped into a sleek and stylish format a few times and she hasn’t been the same since. Now she’s got class!
If the suggestion of a Cole Porter musical revue on television had been made four seasons ago, I doubt that it would have stirred my enthusiasm a while. But after watching the medium grow to combine, wisely, the best Broadway and Hollywood production ideas with fresh and clever television experiments, the idea of working on a hour-and-one-half musical was like the old station house fire gong. If there’s anything I love, it’s the planning, the concentration, the panic and the crises of getting ready an opening night – when you think you’ve really got a good show. Ours is set for this Saturday at 9:30 p.m., the “Ford Star Jubilee” premiere of the season on CBS Television, and we think it’s worth all the excitement.
My only stipulation at the contract-signing was the same one that has applied to all my Broadway shows, that I be allowed to approve the staging. This may sound overbearing, but it’s a matter of personal pride and affection. I have been in love with every show I’ve written, and it hurts and irritates me to hear one of my tunes mistreated – as it would to participate in a formal marriage ceremony while “The Wedding March” is played to a rock-and-roll beat.
I love the people that have made my shows and songs popular, and we have always worked together in rehearsal to make the numbers express the same feeling, whether snippy or sentimental, that is intended – and to make both the singer and the song the most effective.
We have hand-picked our television cast as carefully as for a Broadway revue. For the romantic ballads we
’re working with Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae. They’re studying – and I mean studying – such numbers as “In the Still of the Night,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “So in Love.” The galvanic Dolores Gray belts out “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Why Can’t You Behave,” “Just One of Those Things” and “Make It Another Old Fashioned” in a way that make my ears ring with delight. Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, one of my all-time favorites, raises the ceiling with “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and teams with Gordon MacRae for the “High Society” duet of “Now You Has Jazz.” The gorgeous, sultry Dorothy Dandridge makes such a slinky Calypso sensation out of “You Do Something to Me” that I’ve asked her to try a number that I never thought could be duplicated, Mary Martin’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”
My old friend George Sanders was asked to join us and give the audience a sampling of the comic personality he usually reveals only in singing at parties. He’s agreed to render my variable “Let’s Do It” as well as some comedy specials we’re working on.
We had to have a team for such bouncy numbers as “Friendship” and “Be A Clown,” and what better luck than to be able to nab Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy between Las Vegas engagements! “Night and Day” and “Begin the Beguine” are given the works with none other than the petite blonde actress Sally Forrest set to surprise everyone in her television dancing debut.
Can you imagine a show like this a few years ago? I couldn’t. Then, when I saw a few hour-and-one-half television musicals appear on the horizon, with original scores, top performers, brilliant direction, then television came of age for me.